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GIANNONE, PIETRO (1676-1748)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 925 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIANNONE, PIETRO (1676-1748) , was See also:born at Ischitella, in the See also:province of Capitanata, on the 7th of May 1676. Arriving in See also:Naples at the See also:age of eighteen, he devoted himself to the study of See also:law, but his legal pursuits were much surpassed in importance by his See also:literary labours. He devoted twenty years to the See also:composition of his See also:great See also:work, the Storia civile del regno di Napoli, which was ultimately published in 17.23. Here in his See also:account of the rise and progress of the Neapolitan See also:laws and See also:government, he warmly espoused the See also:side of the See also:civil See also:power in its conflicts with the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:hierarchy. His merit lies in the fact that he was the first to See also:deal systematically with the question of See also:Church and See also:State, and the position thus taken up by him, and the mannerin which that position was assumed, gave rise to a lifelong conflict between Giannone and the Church; and in spite of his retractation in See also:prison at See also:Turin, he deserves the See also:palm--as he certainly endured the sufferings—of a See also:confessor and See also:martyr in the cause of what he deemed See also:historical truth. Hooted by the See also:mob of Naples, and excommunicated by the See also:archbishop's See also:court, he was forced to leave Naples and repair to See also:Vienna. Meanwhile the See also:Inquisition had attested after its own See also:fashion the value of his See also:history by putting it on the See also:Index. At Vienna the favour of the See also:emperor See also:Charles VI. and of many leading personages at the See also:Austrian court obtained for him a See also:pension and other facilities for the See also:prosecution of his historical studies. Of these the most important result was Il Triregno, ossia del regno del cielo, della terra, e del papa. On the See also:transfer of the Neapolitan See also:crown to Charles of See also:Bourbon, Giannone lost his Austrian pension and was compelled to remove to See also:Venice. There he was at first most favourably received. The See also:post of consulting lawyer to the re-public, in which he might have continued the See also:special work of Fra See also:Paolo See also:Sarpi, was offered to him, as well as that of See also:professor of public law in See also:Padua; but he declined both offers.

Unhappily there arose a suspicion that his views on maritime law were not favourable to the pretensions of Venice, and this suspicion, notwithstanding all his efforts to dissipate it, together with clerical intrigues, led to his See also:

expulsion from the state. On the 23rd of See also:September 1735 he was seized and conveyed to See also:Ferrara. After wandering under an assumed name for three months through See also:Modena, See also:Milan and Turin, he at last reached See also:Geneva, where he enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished citizens, and was on excellent terms with the great See also:publishing firms. But in an evil See also:hour he was induced to visit a Catholic See also:village within Sardinian territory in See also:order to hear See also:mass on See also:Easter See also:day, where he was kidnapped by the agents of the Sardinian government, conveyed to the See also:castle of Miolans and thence successively transferred to See also:Ceva and Turin. In the fortress of Turin he remained immured during the last twelve years of his See also:life, although See also:part of his See also:time was spent in composing a See also:defence of the Sardinian interests as opposed to those of the papal court, and he was led to sign a retractation of the statements in his history most See also:obnoxious to the Vatican (1738). But after his recantation his detention was made less severe and he was allowed many alleviations. He died on the 7th of See also:March 1748, in his seventy-second See also:year. Giannone's See also:style as an See also:Italian writer has been pronounced to be below a severe classical See also:model; he is often inaccurate as to the facts, for he did not always work from See also:original authorities (see A. See also:Manzoni, Storia See also:delta See also:colonna infame), and he was sometimes guilty of unblushing See also:plagiarism. But his very ease and freedom have helped to make his volumes more popular than many See also:works of greater classical renown. In See also:England the just appreciation of his labours by See also:Gibbon, and the ample use made of them in the later volumes of Tlye Decline and Fall, See also:early secured him his rightful See also:place in the estimation of See also:English scholars. The See also:story of his life has been recorded in the Vita by L.

Panzini, which is based on Giannone's unpublished Autobiografia and printed in the Milan edition of the historian's works (1823) ; whilst a more See also:

complete estimate of his literary and See also:political importance may be formed by the perusal of the collected edition of the works written by him in his Turin prison, published in Turin in 1859—under the care of the distinguished statesman Pasquale Stanislao See also:Mancini, universally recognized as one of the first authorities in See also:Italy on questions See also:relating to the history of his native Naples, and especially of the conflicts between the civil power and the Church. See also R. Mariano, "Giannone e See also:Vico," in the Rivista contemporanea (1869) ; G. See also:Ferrari, La Mente di Pietro Giannone (1868). G. Bonacci's Saggio See also:sulla Storia civile del Giannone (See also:Florence, 1903) is a See also:bitter attack on Giannone, and although the writer's remarks' on the plagiarisms in the Storia civile are justified, the See also:charge of servility is greatly exaggerated.

End of Article: GIANNONE, PIETRO (1676-1748)

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